The Spot Blog

Tancredo said Friday that his call for a civics-literacy test dates to 2007, when he was a Republican presidential candidate and was impressed with how much an immigrant he met on the trail knew about America.

Told his remarks were creating an uproar — particularly among liberal bloggers — Tancredo laughed and joked that they were "quoting me accurately again." He then bemoaned what he called "the left's obsession with race."

State House Speaker Terrance Carroll, the first black speaker in Colorado history, said there's a reason Tancredo's remarks are being viewed racially.

"He's saying them in relationship to Barack Obama," said Carroll, a Denver Democrat. "What does he expect people to think?"

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Tancredo represented Colorado's 6th Congressional District for a decade before retiring in 2008. He is best known for his anti-illegal-immigration stance and speaking his mind.

At the convention, he railed against Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, and said it was a good thing he lost because Obama's win has inspired activists.

"He's calling for things that, thank God, were banned and were part of Jim Crow life," said Heidi Beirich, research director at the Southern Poverty Law Center. "To me, it's an incredible thing to say. We've been down this road before. It's not a good history for us to follow."

Carroll said that as a former social studies teacher, Tancredo should know "how hateful those tests were and how hateful that period of history was."

But Tancredo said his call for a test is strictly based on his desire to get participation only from voters who understand the government.

"Because if you can't answer the same questions an immigrant has to answer in order to become a citizen, what the hell right do you have to vote?" he said.

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